Plan your week in 30 minutes

Experts say that you need only 30 minutes to plan your entire week. How to do it? Follow the OATS formula:
O -- Objectives: what results do you want see by the end of the week? Write them down and rank them.
A -- Activities: what do you have to do to achieve your goals? List the necessary activities and put them in sequence.
T -- Time: how much time will each activity require? To plan realistically, allow yourself more time than you think you will actually need. This gives you flexibility if unexpected problems develop.
S -- Schedule: look at your calendar and decide when you can do each activity. Most people underestimate the power of a schedule, but you won't get anything accomplished if you don't schedule time to do it.

Source: Adapted from President's Newsletter, The Manager's Intelligence Report

CVB Trends

According to Meeting Focus Magazine, the top trendsetting CVBs are setting a new standard of service for meeting planners by helping with:
Attendance-building
Social networking
RFP and site-selection streamlining
Offering micro sites

The Columbus CVB has made these a priority as part of its one-stop-shop management. During last year's Governor's Conference on Tourism, the Columbus CVB won a marketing award for its Success Meetings Campaign, which encompasses the "one call, gets it all" approach of servicing its customers.

Group Demand is Back

Group Demand is Back, according to Jan Freitag, SR Vice President, Global Development at Smith travel Research.

The news is positive. The U.S. hotel industry posted a 5.3% increase in occupancy for the first quarter of 2011, compared to 2010. And for both hoteliers and meeting planners, the hot findings was that much of the growth is from group-based business where group-based occupancy was up 7.8% (year over year). U.S. hotels are also reporting that group based RevPAR was up 10.3%.

What this means is that meeting are coming back. According to Freitag, there is strong demand for hotels from groups as well as leisure travelers.

A note of caution though, meeting planners are booking later, short-term or in the quarter for the quarter. Another trend reported is that companies are meeting differently. Rather than having one big meeting, many companies are have three smaller and shorter meetings in regional destinations. This is good for second tier markets.

Source: Convention South Magazine

What a Meeting Planner Needs from a CVB

Recently the Association of Convention Operations Management hosted a webcast, "The Planners Answer Your Questions," which three meeting planners addressed, among other topics, the top things planners need from CVBs. Here are the answers:

1. Site Visits -- hosting a site visit is an excellent way for a CVB to build a planner's confidence that the destination will work. Planners need the CVB to be very visible. A sit visit provides CVBs the opportunity to demonstrate that they will be the connection for the hotels being used.
2. Client Advocacy -- Any assistance the planner can get in negotiating good rates will help in the decision process. The CVB should be involved throughout the entire event; representation from the CVB on the site inspection, pre-con, and during the event is a great help.
3. Destination Information -- The CVB needs be relied on for off-site venue and attraction recommendations. Clients like to offer their attendees the top 10 list of things to do and along with restaurant options. When CVBs pick what goes on the list, it carries a lot of weight with the client.

SOURCE: Successful Meetings Magazine

Social Media: The Three Big Myths

Customers and marketers alike are enthralled by social media. But can companies capitalize on it to acquire new customers?

Today, Facebook has more than half a billion active users; Twitter users send more than 140 million tweets per day; and other social media outlets boast millions more logging in every day. That's an enormous marketing forum, and organizations of all types have invested a fortune into using social media to acquire customers. But does that approach actually work?

Not in the way you might think. Recently, Gallup conducted research with more than 17,000 social media users -- evaluating everything from the latest mobile social media apps to old-school word-of-mouth. The study revealed groundbreaking new insights into how people interact with social media and into its effectiveness as a marketing tool.

These findings debunk three big myths regarding social media: that it effectively drives customer acquisition, that social networkers are all the same, and that social networking is an online-only phenomenon. But more important to companies spending tons of money on social media initiatives, Gallup's research also suggests practical actions that can make these efforts more effective.

Myth: Social media initiatives drive customer loyalty and acquisition.

Fact: Engagement with a brand drives social engagement.

This first myth cuts to the core of what organizations want social media initiatives to accomplish: getting new customers and keeping existing customers. Yet according to Gallup research, brand-sponsored social media initiatives have very little impact on consumer decision making. Nor do they drive prospective customers to consider trying a brand or recommending a brand to others in their social network. (See graphic "Key Influences on Customer Decisions.")

Brand-sponsored social media initiatives don't have much influence on a customer's deep rational and emotional attachment, which is called customer engagement. Gallup analysis shows that it works the other way around:

Customer engagement with a brand drives social engagement, the degree to which customers will work for or against your company or brand within their social networks.

And customer engagement can't be won solely with an app. Gallup research has found that customer engagement is the result of the fulfillment of four psychological needs and three rational needs. For a company to benefit from social engagement, it usually must create customer engagement first. (See graphic "The Customer Engagement Hierarchy.")

The more emotionally attached customers are to your organization, the more likely they are to resolve tension between their positive and negative beliefs -- what psychologists call cognitive dissonance -- about your organization in your favor. That's because as your most engaged customers use your product, service, or brand, it becomes part of their own identity -- something psychologists call symbolic self-completion. When this happens, criticizing that product is tantamount to criticizing themselves.

That's why you need to go beyond measurements of rational satisfaction or recommendation-based metrics like Net Promoter to understand the rational and emotional factors that bond customers to your brand. Building on this understanding, our analysis revealed these key points about customer behavior:

• Customers are more predisposed to be positive about your organization and more willing to work on your behalf with their social networks than are prospects, who are less engaged with your organization.
• Customers are more likely to give you a pass when they have something negative to say, particularly if they are highly engaged. About three-fourths (74%) of fully engaged customers had positive social engagement (engaging their social networks in a complimentary way) and no negative social engagement (engaging in a derogatory way) about a brand, product, or service. In contrast, only 1% of actively disengaged customers had positive social engagement with a brand, product, or service, while 14% had negative social engagement.
• Prospective customers are much more likely to try your product or service or advocate on your behalf if they hear good things about you from an engaged customer in their social network. Prospects are most likely to rely on people they have close relationships with or trust, such as a spouse or family member or an expert. They are much less likely to trust online or TV advertising or corporate-sponsored Facebook pages or Twitter feeds. (See graphic "Key Influences on Customer Decisions.")

If your organization is considering whom to target with its social media initiatives, keep these key points in mind:

• You're less likely to engage prospects directly through social media. Encourage or guide your current customers to advocate on your behalf instead.
• Focus your efforts on your most engaged customers because they are the most likely to advocate on your behalf and the least likely to criticize you.

Myth: Social networking is an online-only phenomenon.

Fact: Social networking predominantly happens offline.

Ten years ago, customer advocacy circles talked about creating "buzz," finding your "hubs" or "worker bees," and relying on "herd instinct" to distribute favorable word-of-mouth for your organization. Then, just as marketers were trying to dollarize these efforts, shiny, fast, and trackable digital social networking platforms emerged and appeared to provide the solution. Yet we're still talking about the same thing: how to dollarize word-of-mouth efforts within social networks, albeit through digital social media channels.

It's important to note the difference between what we mean by social networking and social media. Social networking is the act of engaging a social network; social media comprises the channels through which people network. This leads us to some bad news for the digerati: Digital-only social media initiatives are leaving far too many prospects and customers untapped. Our analysis suggests that the most frequent type of social networking is still analog -- face-to-face or over the phone. This holds true among all types of social networkers, even younger social networkers (which we'll cover in part 2 of this article).

When organizations plan their social networking initiatives, too many of them mistake the media for the message. They seek to drive specific business outcomes by managing infinitesimal online response metrics like followership, app downloads, hashtags, or click-throughs rather than creating content or ideas that resonate with their prospects or customers and fostering engagement regardless of the method or channel.

What then is the key to effective social networking? Don't confuse the channel for the desired outcome. Social engagement can and must be measured and managed across all channels -- online and offline.

Myth: All social networkers are the same.

Fact: People use social networks in very different ways -- and for very different reasons.

Marketers have customer segmentation down to a science. Today, they can target and approach prospects based on small clusters of highly focused similarities. Some organizations even talk about full customization -- segmenting and targeting down to the individual consumer.

Yet this same methodology isn't typically used in the social media space. Instead -- bowing to the argument that "everyone is doing it, so we should too" -- many organizations approach social media as a tactic in search of a strategy.

But using mass tactics to reach consumers implies that all social networkers are the same. They're not. Gallup research shows that social networkers have different intrinsic reasons why and how they use their networks. They won't change those to fit your organization, so the key is to understand these differences and align your initiatives to them.

SOURCE: MultiView by Blaise James and Jim Asplund

10 Basic Questions for Reviewing Your Approach to Paid Search Marketing

When reviewing your search strategy, there is a common set of issues that should be considered. The following are some tips so that you can think through that may apply. These are the basic questions to be reviewed.

Question 1. Goals and objectives

Do we have the right types of goals to review paid search effectiveness and efficiency?

You should set goals and review performance against volume (e.g. visits), quality (e.g. bounce rate, conversion % to lead or sale), cost (e.g. average cost per click and cost per conversion) and value measures (e.g. for transactional Ecommerce sites with a referral engine, Cost Per Acquisition, ROAS, Revenue per visit). If you’re not running a transactional site, you should still try to establish the value of leads since you won’t be able to estimate the returns you need otherwise.

Question 2. Performance targets

Do we have clear targets to ensure the agency meets goals of value generation and cost?

If you’re not paying by performance, then it’s essential to set targets to encourage optimisation of the account through improving quality score

Question 3. Keyphrase targeting selection and reporting

Are you investing in the right keyphrases to meet your objectives and performance targets?

Often not enough consideration is given into how to group keyphrases so that the right investments are made to drive commercial outcomes. Suitable top-level grouping of the performance of the many search terms on an account will be needed to do this. For example, can you determine the commercial contribution of these:

• Pure brand
• Brand + generic
• Brand + product
• Non-brand generic – category
• Non-brand generic – product, etc

Using the new Multichannel Funnels in Google Analytics for search analysis can help you identify terms which assist in conversion to sale, even if they aren’t responsible for the final click.

Question 4. Always on paid search

Are we investing continuously in paid search at the levels necessary to create demand for our products and help consumers choose us?

In some companies, paid search is intermittent, often related to campaigns which may miss opportunities if the case for continuous, always-on paid search hasn’t been made.

Did you know that according to Google research on their client accounts, 89% of search traffic is incremental?

Question 5. Customer journeys

Are we directing visitors to the right landing pages on our site to meet our objectives?

Test whether it is best to route visitors direct to a category landing page, rather than the home or category page. Ask where it makes sense to create tailored landing pages to increase conversion and quality score rather than existing site pages.

As mentioned in question 3, the importance of multiple visits in driving sales should also be understood.

Question 6. Improving relevance and Quality Score

How can we improve quality score?

To improve account efficiency means improving relevance of ads based on targeting through account structure, match types and ad creative. Since Google Quality Score is so important to managing paid search we recommend you read this latest guidance if you’re unfamiliar with it.

Question 7. Google Display Network

Are we managing the display network well enough?

The Display network (once known as the Content Network) can still be effective for demand generation and generating awareness since your ads are displayed on related pages/sites according to the keywords they contain. It’s often neglected because of poor performance when it isn’t treated separately from Google search, but it can and should be optimised.

Question 8. Remarketing

Are we using Google’s new Remarketing features?

Adwords now uses cookies from previous visitors to the site to use ads on the Content Network to remind visitors who have shown interest in a product to explore more. Define clear re-targeting rules which target those with the highest intent and potential value, for example directing to the referral engine or store locator where relevant.

Question 9. Non-Google networks

Do we pay enough attention to other search networks

In this note I have focused on Google since it’s dominant in many markets but not all – in many others Google is not the market leader. But consumers do use other search networks and particularly for brand keyphrases volume will be sufficient in other search engines. So select the top 3-5 search networks that are important in your country and apply these notes across all 3 networks.

Question 10. Testing and review

What is our optimisation process to improve ROI?

All search networks have excellent options to test targeting, offer and creative, so put time into refining the approach for all the different factors above.

So those are the ten fundamental questions to improve paid search, I hope they help you review your approach.

SOURCE: ClickThrough, the Search Conversion Experts, Sept. 13, 2011

Meeting Trend

When surveyed, 69% of meeting planners said that HOTELS continue to be the most poplar venue for meetings and events, followed by convention enters. The most poplar types of hotels are located downtown heard conference or convention center, or a costal resort.

SOURCE: Convention South Magazine

Riders Rules

1. Always maintain a Positive Attitude
2. Believe in what you are doing
3. Show commitment and make a contribution
4. Keep your word -- never disgrace your name
5. Take pride in what you do
6. Do quality work
7. Learn -- embrace technology
8. Follow the Golden Rule
9. Never give up
10. Make your dreams come true

Why Partnering with CVBs Matters to You

Conventions and visitors Bureaus (CVBs) agree that the key aspect of assisting groups is to help save the meeting professional money while being flexible to assess the needs of the client. It's a partnership that's formed between the CVB and the planner. Key things to include in that relationship:

• A partnership based on trust
• A partnership where communication is key
• A partnership based around common goals
• A CVB/Venue partnership based on planner satisfaction

It's Still a Buyer's Market

Positive signs that the meetings industry is strengthening are emerging from this year's ConventionSouth's Meeting Trends in the South Report.

Here is a list of where planners are cutting costs. Planners have told ConventionsSouth that have been asked to limit spending on the following areas:

• Nearly 20% will reduce food and beverage
• Nearly 10% will reduce cost for incentives/rewards/VIP Services
• Nearly 10% wants reduced meeting room cost
• 8% are looking to cut cost in AV
• 7% are looking to cut transportation cost
• 6% will look to cut cost in programming
• Less than 5% said they would not make any cuts

SOURCE: Convention South Magazine.

Point employees toward success

One good way to keep your workforce engaged and focused on priorities is to clearly identify your organization's "Key Performance Indicators" (KPI). These track the most important activities that employees are responsible for and which directly support your bottom line -- meetings booked per week or month, for example, or cancellations.

Make these KPIs visible to your workforce. Post charts in your break room where emplyees congregate, and change them often so people recognize their importance. Discuss the numbers in staff meetings. You want your people to be thinking about the same success factors that you and other top managers are concentrating on.

Source: The Manager's Intelligence Report, adapted from the Business Resource Centre website.

TGIF? Be prepared for slow responses

Friday is a special day for most employees -- the unofficial beginning of the weekend. That doesn't mean letting your employees slough off, but be aware that you may not get the response you expect if you call a meeting, send out an e-mail requesting immediate action, or launch a survey.

If possible, wait until Monday. If not possible, take some extra time to emphasize the need for a timely response so employees know you're serious about the issue.

SOURCE: Adapted from the Communitelligence website, The Motivational Manager